What is the Local Plan?
Oldham’s Local Plan will guide development in the borough up to 2039. The main purposes of the Plan are to:
- Set out the planning policies that the council will use to determine planning applications once the Plan is adopted;
- Identify designations for the protection of the borough’s environmental and historical assets, our town centres, employment areas and existing infrastructure;
- Allocate land to meet our future housing and employments needs; and
- Support the development of infrastructure, such as transport, education and utilities.
The Local Plan covers the whole borough except that part which falls within the Peak District National Park.
Upon adoption, the Local Plan will replace the Joint Core Strategy and Development Management Policies DPD, which was adopted in November 2011, and any saved planning policies from the Unitary Development Plan (UDP) 2006.
The Local Plan will sit alongside the emerging Places for Everyone Joint Development Plan as one of the key documents that form the development plan for the borough. Other documents in the development plan include the Greater Manchester Joint Waste Development Plan Document (adopted April 2012) and the Greater Manchester Joint Minerals Development Plan Document (adopted April 2013).
Together these documents will inform decision-making on planning applications in the borough of Oldham (excluding within the Peak District National Park).